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Doi Chaang – 2017 Excellence in Producer Partnership Award

Continuing our series of posts looking at the winners of the Canadian Fairtrade Awards, today we’re looking at Doi Chaang – winner of the 2017 Award for Excellence in Producer Partnership.

This award recognizes an organization for their relationship, involvement and long term commitment in supporting Fairtrade producers. It was introduced this year, and Doi Chaang’s commitment to their producers in Thailand is a stellar example of what fair trade can do to transform communities. Some highlights of their application:

For ten years, the company Doi Chaang has been working to help its namesake village in Thailand achieve self-sustainability for the coffee they produce. The company’s owners visit the village several times a year to monitor progress and help with new developments.

While the relationship started out as a 50/50 partnership, the village is now fully self-sustained, and Doi Chaang hopes to replicate the model in other farms around the world, while continuing the relationship with the village.

Because of this success, the region now has new coffee processing facilities as well as social projects such as roads, schools, hospitals, markets and cafes. In addition, there is an Academy of Coffee which helps farmers from the area learn more about cultivation, processing, quality control and financial stability.

More than a million trees have been planted in the region in the past decade to repopulate the forest with vegetation and wildlife, and to provide natural shade for coffee plants. Organic certification and efforts to reduce water consumption during processing have also improved the local environment significantly.

The Doi Chaang Coffee Foundation was established by the farmers in 2011 with the goal of providing all the hill tribes in the region with access to education and health care regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, political or social status. The foundation is also encouraging the indigenous people to have pride and respect for their cultural heritage and identity.

“Our partnership with Doi Chaang Originals in Thailand and our work with the farmers and villagers is something that we could not have accomplished without Fairtrade. We are extremely proud of what we have accomplished and hope to continue working with Fairtrade International to make changes like this in villages all over the world.”

The Canadian Fairtrade Awards recognize exceptional Fairtrade supporters and are an opportunity to celebrate all of the great work done in the year by businesses, organizations and individuals.

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Fairtrade is a movement for change that works directly with businesses, consumers and campaigners to make trade fair for farmers and workers. The international Fairtrade system represents the world's largest and most recognized fair trade system.